Whitman, Walt

Small folio (11 1/8 x 7 3/4 in.; 281 x 197 mm, preserving deckle on the lower edges of [3]2.3). Engraved frontispiece portrait of Whitman by Samuel Hollyer after a photograph, printed on thick paper and retaining original tissue-guard; frontispiece and title-page very lightly foxed, a few scattered and inconsequential rust stains, text block very secure but with minor separations between the first two gatherings and before the final leaf. Original green cloth, covers with blind-stamped floral decorations and gilt-lettered title (in ornamental "rustic" font) within a triple-fillet frame, smooth spine gilt with title and floral ornaments, top edges gilt, marbled endpapers (Myerson's binding A); corners just bumped, two miniscule pin-point indentations to rear cover. Half green morocco slipcase, chemise. 

Maurice Neville (his sale, Sotheby's New York, 13 April 2004, lot 242)

BAL 21395; Feinberg/Detroit 269; Grolier American 67; Myerson A2.1.a1; Printing and the Mind of Man 340.

A superb copy of the first edition of Leaves of Grass, undoubtedly among the small number of truly fine copies extant. 
First issue, before the insertion of eight pages of press notices (largely the work of Whitman's own pen) and before the deletion of much of the gilt from the covers and page edges, evidently in an effort to lower production costs; second state of the copyright page (as in all but two recorded copies) and of p. iv, col. 2, l. 4 (and for adn).

Leaves of Grass "is America's second Declaration of Independence: that of 1776 was political, this of 1855 intellectual" (PMM).

The Maurice Neville copy, an unusually bright and tight copy, completely unsophisticated and with the hinges absolutely sound.